To quote the host from an earlier ceremony, “So, where were we?”
My last post summarized the Summer of 2011 as belonging to the comicbook film genre. Indeed, three of the four major hero-in-spandex films were among the year’s top 20 in box office draw – according to boxofficemojo.com – with Thor actually cracking the top 10 ($181 million). Looking further, superheroes may have enjoyed the exposure of the summer months, but 2011, if anything, was the year of the franchise.
The nine top-grossing films on top of Kenneth Branagh’s hammer-fest, interestingly, are all sequels or part of an established franchise. This remains the case with the 11th spot – Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes ($176.7 million) - ending at #12 with Captain America: The First Avenger, yet another comicbook film ($176 million).
Look at that again. Of the twelve highest-grossing films of 2011, only two are not sequels and both of them Marvel Studios films that are, actually, part of a mega-franchise Disney is hoping will be an incredible/uncanny/amazing/invincible moneymaker in 2012 with the release of The Avengers. All told, these twelve films garnered a total well over a staggering $971 million, which is up from 2010’s $926.5 million. Regardless of what the trades report, people are still seeing movies.
True, these top twelve films are summer-time popcorn films and succeed for a reason. They are light, fluffy, non-filling and have broad appeal. Movie producers know that, story merits aside, it is much easier to fill a theater with a coveted demographic to see Transformers 3 than a film about Irish cross-dressers. And while it is right and good that Albert Nobbs receive three nominations, would it not also be proper to fully celebrate all that the cinema has to offer and award one of the top-twelve with something other than Sound Mixing?
For 2012, the highest-grossing film of any of the major Academy Award categories, excluding Animated Features, of which none this year were simultaneously nominated for Best Picture, was The Help ($169.6 million), which ranked the 13th highest. Bridesmaids, up for Original Screenplay, is at #14 ($169 million) then no other Oscar nods until The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, up for Best Actress, at #28 ($101 million). To find the next film up for either Picture or Director, you have to look down the list until #41 for War Horse ($78 million). The film to beat this year that has been leading most of the Guild Awards, The Artist, is not even in the top 100 list bringing in only $24 million.
This is not to shortchange the, ahem, artistry of Hazanavicius’ film, nor to even deny the Oscar-worthiness of the cast and crew. Rather, to once again question the Academy’s uber-snotty elitism and their apparent dismissal of fan appreciation.
When the Academy increased the Best Picture category from five nominations to ten in 2010, the rationalization was to get more people interested; interested in the nominations, the awards telecast and, hopefully, the just film itself. This year that formula was tweaked a little and through whatever mathematical voodoo PricewaterhouseCoopers decided on, there are nine noms. But of those nine, aside from The Help, none were a mega-success. How can these selections help, let’s admit it, the ratings of the telecast if the average Harry Potter-Transformers-Twilight-Hangover-Pirates-Thor moviegoer has not even heard of, let alone gone to see,The Artist, The Descendants and, heaven help us all, Tree of Life?
The 2010 nominations list made it fun to see films like District 9, The Blind Slide and Inglorious Bastards as potential gold-winners. These were movies people saw and were excited about. Looking at just a year ago, two of the ten Best Picture nominations were among the year’s top ten grossing films. Two others made the top 20, including winner big-winner The King’s Speech.
2012 has taken a major step back. Does this mean Thor should have been nominated? Not necessarily. However, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hollows had much anticipation and support backing it making the film akin to previous award-winner Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King to deserve a shot. Bridesmaids had a strong resurgence during the awards preamble and would once again give a true comedy a shot at the top prize, something that hasn’t really been seen since the Full Monty in 1998, dark comedies or dramadies like Juno, Sideways and Brokeback Mountain excluded of course.
As a final selection for the nine noms, how about Super 8? Super 8, writer-director J.J. Abrams’ love letter to his childhood, contained universally-familiar elements of friendship, first love and teenage bucking authority wrapped around a clever and equally-familiar tale paying homage to films of that time: E.T., Back To The Future and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind. One would think that, Hugo aside, a film that caters to the historical ideals of the Academy while also maintaining a distinct handhold on the pulse of mainstream America, would be one of those choices that film snobs and popcorn-eaters alike could nod in agreement to.
Obviously not.
Super 8 did bring in a decent $127 million but was a little lost sandwiched in the summer of super-heroes. It was very lost when it came to nominations as J.J. Abrams’ film did not score one single nom. Not even in the ubiquitous Sound Editing/Sound Mixing categories. This film deserves better than that. It certainly deserves more praise than the despicably-sappy Extremely Loud & Incredible Close, the sentimental War Horse and, excuse me, the nearly-unwatchable Tree Of Life.
Also in question is the blindly-accepted notion that all Best Pictures noms automatically are awarded Screenplay noms. Seeing as how there is barely any dialogue in The Artist, I move to have that nomination revoked from the Original list. Likewise with A Separation getting a Foreign Film entry, a domestic film might be better suited. Such replacements could include the aforementioned Super 8 as well as the smartly-written rom-com Crazy, Stupid Love. Love, by no means a Best Picture contender, did have a great script.
The Adapted Screenplay category is significantly tighter packed with serious contenders (Moneyball should win, but probably won’t). However, Ides Of March seems to be more known for its performances, although Paul Giamatti’s absence from the Supporting Actor category is a head scratcher, and could be dropped. Ides’ replacement, then, could be the Philip K. Dick adaptation of The Adjustment Bureau, a clever love story wrapped around a chase mystery complete with two well-likeable characters.
The Oscars are supposed to celebrate and honor the craft of making film and the enjoyment such brings. A Best Picture should be just that: a timeless film that can be watched at any time. The Artist certainly calls up that great sense of nostalgia, but can it maintain such appeal? One can easily surmise that five years on heads can be scratched and blogs populated with the absurd thought that a silent film won top prize.
As Always,
theJOE
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